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'Smart cards' to debut in 2013, helping RTD collect ridership data

New $14 million system covered by federal grant money

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
09/14/2012 09:53:04 PM MDT

Updated:
09/15/2012 04:00:15 PM MDT

University of Colorado graduate student Chris Anderson-Tarvar loads his bicycle on the front of a bus before heading to Denver on Friday at the Table Mesa Park-n-Ride station in Boulder. Next year, smart cards will replace all general bus passes and punch cards throughout the RTD system.
(JEREMY PAPASSO)

EcoPass by the numbers

Boulder -- 1,369 companies; 27,663 employees

Broomfield -- 8 companies; 849 employees

Lafayette -- 5 companies; 607 employees

Louisville -- 5 companies, 79 employees

Longmont -- 4 companies, 667 employees

Nederland -- 2 companies, 14 employees

Superior -- 1 company, 39 employees

Niwot -- 1 company, 7 employees

Neighborhood EcoPass

Neighborhoods -- 48

Households -- 9,549

RTD revenue from EcoPass

Business EcoPass -- $20.7 million

Neighborhood EcoPass -- $835,774

FlexPass -- $938,519 (as of June)

City of Denver ValuPass -- $343,068 (as of September)

Colleges -- $12.4 million

Total -- $35.2 million

Source: RTD

CORRECTION: This story originally mispelled the name of Gary Googins, RTD's IT program manager.

Goodbye decal, hello smart chip.

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Starting next month, the Regional Transportation District is leaping into the digital future with the introduction of its new smart card fare payment system for EcoPass holders. Late next year, the smart cards -- dubbed MyRide -- will replace all general bus passes and punch cards throughout the system.

For EcoPass holders, of which there are more than 80,000 in Boulder County alone, it means an end to the tiny colored stickers that adorn their bus passes. RTD will instead distribute credit card-sized passes, each equipped with an implanted microchip, that riders can swipe on a reader when they board a bus or light-rail train.

The cards will be sent to employers and universities starting in October and will go into effect in the new year.

"This will give us a very accurate picture of usage, and we'll be able to price the EcoPass program accurately," RTD spokesman Scott Reed said Friday.

Riders with an EcoPass can use RTD's buses and trains on an unlimited basis for a year. They get a pass through their employer, or in the case of the University of Colorado, as part of their student fees. Boulder County is the only county in the metro area that also has neighborhood EcoPass programs.

Most of the noticeable change from the transition to smart cards won't happen at the user level but at the back end, where employers, universities and neighborhoods track thousands of people with EcoPasses and figure out who's eligible for renewals the following year, said Gary Googins, RTD's IT program manager.

"They will have the ability to self-manage their own EcoPass programs," Googins said of the new system.

Employers -- and there are nearly 2,000 in the metro area that participate in the EcoPass program -- will be able to print employees' photos on blank smart cards using a webcam and ID card printers. Smaller companies, or Boulder County's neighborhood EcoPass participants, can still get RTD to produce the cards for them by sending employee photos to the agency electronically, he said.

Gone, Googins said, will be the fraud that often happens with the current system, where pilfered EcoPass decals appear for sale on Craigslist or other sites. Stolen or lost smart card EcoPasses can easily be deactivated.

"With the smart card, the employer can turn it off," Googins said.

Gone too, he said, will be the hassle of having to drive to RTD headquarters to pick up a roll of decals for distribution at the beginning of the year.

"The distribution process for the stickers is very expensive and time-consuming," Googins said.

Not that launching the new smart card system is without expense. To buy the cards and install the equipment at train stations and on buses systemwide is running RTD $14 million. Reed said that cost is covered by federal grant money.

RTD brings in more than $35 million a year in revenues from the EcoPass program.

Googins said RTD waited to see how smart card technology played out in other cities before taking on the endeavor itself.

"The technology is definitely proven," he said.

Chris Hagelin, senior transportation planner for Boulder, said he looks forward to the smart cards but says the transition from the decals won't be without its hardships this winter.

"It's going to be a challenge in the process to get the smart cards into people's hands," he said. "Making sure all the businesses are getting the cards and who they have a picture for and who they don't won't be easy."

But Hagelin said the data derived from the use of EcoPass smart cards will allow Boulder and Boulder County to help RTD refine bus routes and help in establishing a fair price for the program.

"Up until this, we haven't had the data to come up with a pricing structure that satisfies businesses, neighborhoods and RTD," he said of the fees RTD charges for the passes. "The smart cards will provide us with the ability to have data-driven decision making."

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